The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
EGBank turns 'forsaken freelancer' into a banking customer — MENA Effie 2024 Grand Prix
Comedy hero Raouf the freelancer has no job name and no rights at the bank — EGBank's Free.ly service for gig workers wins the 2024 MENA Effie Grand Prix.
EGBank (Egyptian Gulf Bank)
What it had to solve
In Egypt, a fast-growing freelance workforce hit traditional banking rules built around salaried employment — no payslip meant no account, no card, no loans. EGBank decided the excluded gig worker was its customer.
How it works
Egypt's freelance workforce — designers, developers, writers — kept hitting a wall at the bank. Traditional rules were built around salaried employees: no steady payslip, no account, no credit card, no loan. EGBank chose to treat that exclusion as its opportunity, building Free.ly, a service designed around gig workers' irregular incomes.
People of the Internet brought back Raouf, the character first introduced in EGBank's 2017 Ramadan campaign as the young man whose father still treats him like a child. In 2024, Raouf is a freelancer — still the black sheep, now with 'no rights and no job name', tormented by clients, his landlord and his neighbours. The humorous Ramadan TV campaign and a follow-up OOH wave let the bank sell its product through the pain of the person it was built for.
The work won the Grand Prix at the 2024 MENA Effie Awards, held in Riyadh as part of Riyadh Season, where 90 winners were chosen from more than 850 submissions across 40-plus categories. People of the Internet, the independent agency behind the campaign, was also named Most Impactful Independent Agency of the region at the same ceremony.
Why it lands
- A recurring character gave the campaign continuity — audiences already knew and liked Raouf from 2017.
- Humour made a banking product watchable during Ramadan's crowded ad season.
- The creative insight came from the customer's identity — 'no job name, no rights' — which is exactly the obstacle the product removes.
- Multi-channel execution (TV plus OOH) kept the story visible after the ad break.
What it did
The campaign won the Grand Prix at the 2024 MENA Effie Awards in Riyadh, chosen from 850 entries; People of the Internet was also named Most Impactful Independent Agency at the same ceremony.
What you can take
Turn the customer the industry excludes into the hero: when a product's obstacle is a person's identity, telling their story is not decoration — it is the product demo.
Since then
The Grand Prix put EGBank's freelancer push on the regional map, and the Raouf story continued through 2024 in OOH formats promoting Free.ly's credit cards and loans; the bank kept building its reputation as the bank for independent workers in Egypt.
Sources
- Freelancers Sanctuary, EG Bank to Visit Cairo's OOH Locale With a Witty Campaign
- Raouf is Still Looking for The Freelancers Safe Zone, and EG Bank Is Here to Help
- Riyadh Season Celebrates Excellence At The 2024 MENA Effie Awards Ceremony
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